He Knows no Fear. He Knows No Danger. He Knows Nothing

Could not help inserting the catchy movie caption in the subject line. Johnny English Reborn carries on from where the previous edition had left off (and mercifully without any overtly emoting-challenged cast). The movie opens in Tibet, where English’s penance for an earlier failed mission is interrupted by an MI7 summons, to the great joy of fellow inmates at the monastery. The mission this time around – to protect the Chinese Premier. Expectedly, the story traverses many locales with the copybook laugh-a-minute slapstick humor firmly in place. Rowan Atkinson is clearly a niche by himself, and Mr Bean of the TV series has metamorphosed into a full-blown nearing-cult comedy personality

14.5/20

Englishman in New York

Simon Pegg (Sidney Young) is the Englishman in New York, a man of some spunk and, who, by any which means, wants to break into the Page 3 circuit, in particular the Sharps Magazine after-party. The proverbial shot comes by way of a gatecrashing attempt and a call from New York. Sidney in Sharps’ cut-throat culture, makes friends and proves himself after a near-disastrous series of faux pas’ – thanks to the support of girl next door and lead editor Alison (Kirsten Dunst). The other characters make for fair viewing too - the sultry and overtly sexual Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) with an unforgettable across-thre-pool saunter for promoting her latest release “Mother Teresa”, driven entrepreneur with a short fuse Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) who cannot suffer fools gladly but eventually comes round to Sidney, the ambitious Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson) and Danny Huston (Lawrence Maddox). While How to Lose Friends and Alienate People has moments of genuine humour and introspection, overall this is good rather than remarkable fare, that will keep you occupied, as Sidney remains true to his character

11.5/20

The Truth is Out There in Shades of Gray

X Files - I Want to Believe is a brave movie that deviates from the paranormal routine. While it may alienate the die-hard fans of the franchise flocking the halls in droves for what once used to be their daily dose of being privy to sundry government cover-ups, as a standalone movie this one excels. There is a debate through the movie on stem cell research – the dark side of human trafficking and experimentation, and the healing power and potential of the very same research. There is the moral ambiguity of the prescient who can save lives but otherwise has had a very twisted past. This is a very human edition of the X Files rather than being simply a science fiction movie. Looking at the previous edition, the science fiction avatars would have had a limited shelf life anyway. And the ageing of Scully definitely does not help.